Category: Pickleball (Page 113 of 324)

Sunday, January 7, 2024 (Court Day #619)

Today was my first day back into regular duties as site coordinator for Derby Park on Sundays since my knee surgery in early June.

It’s kind of ironic that in the last couple of weeks, I made up a meme kind of mocking those who don’t want to play pickleball in the cold. As I peered out my back window through the blinds, I could see some ice patches in my backyard. It rained very heavily yesterday afternoon, but it was mostly clear skies today. The thermometer in my car read 39°F and there was ice on my windshield. The excellent thing is sun. The sun beating down should dry out the courts fairly quickly. I rarely wear a sweatshirt but with freezing temperatures overnight, today was one of those days!

Derby

I parked outside Derby Park at 8:42 a.m. and walked in to completely empty courts. And they were wet. I pulled out one portable net (there are five rolling nets now) and set up the sign-up board and blew off a court before my neglected club battery died. (Apparently, it drained over the last six months while waiting for use.) For the first hour, we had to wait for four of the six courts to dry, initially only allowing those for drilling. Gradually, one by one, courts were no longer slippery and I released the courts to games.

Of the first few people who arrived today, I had no idea who they were. The first one, John, said he’s playing for about three months and the second one, Mike, for about five months. By the time the session was in full swing, I would say I knew about half the players. A whole lot of new faces!

Scot, one of my students from my very first Willowbrook beginner class that started in November, was there and greeted me as I passed. On my way back, I said, “Nice to have a Scot sighting out in the wild!”

While warming up, the guy I was warming up with complimented my drop shots. I shared back, “It’s not my first rodeo!”

I spent the last 20 minutes of my time at Derby instructing to brand new players. For the two newbies that I trained when was named Gina, neither one was named Qwa.

I had Rick Abend close for me and Mark G. took over teaching the two newbies. I left a few minutes after noon . . . I had to get to my class in Aptos.

County Class

I drove home and picked up my wife. She was going to tag along to go walk with a friend of ours who lives two blocks from Willowbrook County Park. Our younger corgi Pepper came along to go with her.

One of my eight students, Nina, didn’t come to the first class.

My first class went well. I’ll admit that I should have reviewed my notes from my first class a bit more, I forgot to cover details of holding the paddle, but we’ll double-check that next week. It’s a more equally skilled group this time. Last time, I had students who had a really hard time directing the ball but also Scot who obviously a step up from the rest . . . he did come in with some previous game experience though.

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Monday, January 8, 2024 (No Play)

I heard about this technique years ago, but this video is the first time I’ve actually seen it in practice:

Knee

My knee is bothering me some. Knee discomfort on stairs is minimal but noticeable. Walking to my car to head out for lunch, it was a different kind of pain, less achy and slightly more sharp, but still relatively mild.

Number of days on a court: 619
Number of total hours: 2,700
Number of paid coaching hours: 9.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.

Monday, January 1, 2024 (Court Day #618)

Last night, I dreamt that I was at a medical clinic and I was explaining to the man and the woman behind the counter—which strangely seemed like a hotel check-in counter—that my doctor had told me to come back if my wrist hurt. It’s not a surprise that when I woke up this morning, my right wrist was experiencing some pain. It’s hard for me to say, of course, but I have a feeling that my knee may gradually improve this year, but my wrist is going to be a chronic issue… assuming that I continue to play regularly.

Derby Duties

This coming Sunday, I’ll be resuming my duties as the Derby Park site coordinator for every Sunday morning. That’ll be immediately followed by the first meeting of my January 4-week beginner pickleball class at Willowbrook in Aptos.

I have to admit, it’s a bit of a sacrifice to commit to opening—or being responsible to open—courts every week without fail indefinitely. Especially when it’s my only day off. Yes, my only day off from work. And often more skilled players avoid club play and arrange their own games elsewhere.

Private Games?

Last night was the whirlwind of texts to groups of pickleball players and individual pickleball players, as I tried to set up a private game session this morning. But the best I could do was René and Charles at Derby Park and we couldn’t arrange for a fourth. We figured we might as well just get together for club play at Brommer and arrange some games once club play was over at noon.

Brommer

I woke up this morning in my lower back was a bit sore and tight. I took a couple of ibuprofen to help.

When I got to Brommer Park, it was a very cool 50°, but it was crystal clear skies with bright winter sun. I was expecting a very, very busy day given that today is a holiday. I was shocked when I pulled into the lot at 9:10 and found a ton of free parking. The lot was only about half full. I guess a bunch of people were out late last night for New Year’s Eve!

Bob

A nice surprise, my college PE tennis coach Bob Hansen showed up around 1 o’clock to meet with some other players that had been arranged. I chatted with him for a few minutes, including with regard to his intermediate class that I’m subbing in for him in about two weeks. René and I played a game against Bob and Dave Debiasi. Bob was pretty obviously the stronger player of the two and played very well. I was almost surprised when he made errors. René and I made a game of it, but they won. While a strong player, René doesn’t always cope well with bangers of which Dave is definitely one. She said, “That’s not pickleball, that’s tennis.” Maybe she’s right, but I’m of a different mind. Sure, you see less banging away at higher levels, but that’s because it typically becomes a liability as pro players can take advantage of those shots. But, ultimately, you use what wins. If your opponent can’t handle hard drives, you do it until they can handle them . . . if you don’t win first! On the flip side, if you opponent drives everything and you want them to stop, then make them pay. Then they will be forced to change or lose the game. The only “right” way to play is the way that wins the game for you. (I’m not meaning the games where you pick on the 97-year-old granny to win 11-0!)

Hugh and I played a few games against the man named Bruce and his son Josh. Those were some balanced and very close games. Bruce and Josh won the first and last games and Hugh and I won the middle game.

Skill Creep

Skill creep with regard to signups on the court signup board continues to be a concern. There is a game with Hugh and I signed up in red against a couple of other players whom we beat them 11-0. The woman, Connie, was a good player . . . leaving her partner as the culprit. Even though we beat them 11-0, that didn’t stop the man from going and signing up in red again, even though he is definitely an intermediate player, not advanced player. I mentioned it quietly to Mark Dettle. He said if the man played poorly again—in the game Mark was about to play—Mark would mention something to the guy afterward.

I left at 2:25 p.m. after five hours of play. No wonder I was tired. 

I played a lot of challenging games today. I didn’t play terribly, but I also wasn’t happy with my play. I just have to get better. That’s going to mean drilling.

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Wednesday, January 3, 2024 (No Play)

Rick Abend texted me saying that no cancelation notice had been sent for Derby Park’s SCPC club day today but it was not opened. Barb had texted Rick and myself a few weeks ago saying she was done opening come 2024. Well, it’s 2024. I’m running Derby Park again on Sunday. But something fell through the cracks for Derby today. I did a little sleuthing, then just passed it on via email to Pam R. who is still listed on the club website as the official Venue Coordinator, though I believe it had changed to someone else.

It later turned out that Pam hadn’t updated the website and Andrew McLeod is now the club’s Venue Coordinator. I forwarded my message about Derby to him.

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Thursday, January 4, 2024 (No Play)

Mike at Rec.us reached out and asked if I want to do another beginner class in February. That’d be my third session. I’m starting my second this Sunday. Mike said there’d be a week break between this session and February session in case we need to do a make-up class for rain cancellation. Honestly, I’m a bit concerned about burnout, between Derby site coordinator duties rolling right into a class halfway across the county. But I said “yes” to the February class. I also told Mike that I’ve had requests for an intermediate class and perhaps we can work that in maybe in a few months.

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Saturday, January 6, 2024 (No Play)

My right knee has been bugging me. I haven’t played since Monday.

It was gushing rain this afternoon. It stopped raining around 4:30 p.m. That’s good as I’m resuming my site coordinator duties at Derby Park tomorrow morning, followed by the first day of my second 4-week beginner pickleball class.

Number of days on a court: 618
Number of total hours: 2,697
Number of paid coaching hours: 8

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.

Sunday, December 31, 2023 (Court Day #617)

In the Santa Cruz Sentinel this morning, they had a 4-page section recapping the best photos of 2023. A big surprise, an aerial photo of the recent Newman camp made the list . . . at the top of page 2!

Football

My son Nicholas is in town for New Year’s weekend so he joined me and my friend Todd to watch the Raiders and Colts game. With a loss, the Raiders would be eliminated from the playoffs. The Colts wouldn’t be eliminated either way, just their odds would be over twice as good a win. As it turned out, the Colts won by three points. Todd‘s wife Karen had me some really yummy rocky road which Todd had brought as a dessert. Between chips, sausage slices, pizza, and rocky road, I was far from hungry after the game, which finished up shortly after 1 o’clock.

Pickleball?

I sent out a text about 1:15 p.m. asking if anyone wanted to play pickleball this afternoon. Paul Swiencicki and René Baker both responded. Paul said he was heading over to Brommer and René said that she was already there. So that’s where I headed!

Brommer

I arrived at Bromer at 1:45 p.m. Pretty quickly, I got into some games. I barely had time to hang up my backpack before Hemie called over and asked if I wanted to join their game as a fourth.

The first game was Pauly and me against Hemie and Spencer. It was a good warm-up game. I started out slow but then my game tightened up and Pauly and I went on to win.

I went on to have various games over my three hour stretch, including Paul S. Folks were pretty good about moving off courts when they were done.

Spencer made a comment mid-game about how my serves land and stay very low and that you almost have to dig with your paddle to return them. Nice to hear. Paul complimented me, “That was a nice roll volley.” We were all at the net and I’d dropped the ball—using a roll volley—at Spencer’s left toe.

Played a few games with René and she was very complimentary. I also overheard her telling Spencer he shouldn’t feel bad since I have some of the fastest hands that she’s ever seen.

I got Hemie, Spencer, and René on my slice service returns—rally over! Spencer eventually got them figured out and made a return to win the rally off of my slice. He was proud of himself—as he well should be in making adjustments and learning how to deal with those.

The last two or three games were a battle against either the sun, or shortly after, fading light. I was hitting my drops pretty well until those last few games.

My last game was René and myself against Sean and Spencer. We lost that game 8-11. Sean is very nice backhand crosscourt dinking mechanics. He’s very consistent with that.

People started to clear out and the sun was setting when we wrapped up the last game at 4:45 p.m.

Overall, I felt ok about my play. Not stellar, but not bad. A decent way to end a year.

When I got home, I crawled into the spa that we had installed in our backyard about a year ago and then later iced my right knee. My knee doesn’t feel too bad, and that is very promising.

Number of days on a court: 617
Number of total hours: 2,692
Number of paid coaching hours: 8

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.